Steven Kliewer, Ph.D.
Professor

Biography

Steven Kliewer earned his BS in biochemistry from Brown University in 1985 and his PhD in molecular biology from UCLA in 1990. From 1990-1993, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Ronald Evans at the Salk Institute, where he began his studies on orphan nuclear receptors. During this period, he discovered the central role that the retinoid receptor RXR plays as an obligate heterodimer partner for the vitamin D receptor, thyroid hormone receptor, retinoic acid receptor, and PPARs.

In 1993, he joined Glaxo, Inc., where he co-founded a scientific group devoted to exploiting orphan nuclear receptors as drug discovery targets. Among his achievements at Glaxo was the discovery that the fatty acid receptor PPAR-gamma is the molecular target for the antidiabetic TZD class of drugs, including rosiglitazone and pioglitazone. He also discovered the xenobiotic receptor PXR and showed that it is responsible for an important class of drug-drug interactions. A practical consequence of this work is that new drugs can be screened efficiently for harmful interactions with other medications.

In 2002, he joined the faculty at UT Southwestern, where he is currently Professor of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology and holds the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Distinguished Chair in Basic Cancer Research. He runs a joint laboratory with Dr. David Mangelsdorf that focuses on the roles of nuclear receptors and endocrine FGFs in regulating diverse aspects of physiology and pathophysiology, including metabolism and metabolic disease.